The Power Macintosh 5200 LC was introduced in April 1995 with a PowerPC 603 CPU at 75 MHz as a PowerPC-based replacement of the Macintosh LC 500 series. Later models switched to the PowerPC 603e CPU and used model numbers above 5260, but kept the same motherboard design. Unlike previous education models, which prepended the model number with "LC", the 5200 series uses the Power Macintosh designation of Apple's main workstation line of the time and appends the LC to the end of the model name. All models in the 5xxx series featured an integrated 15-inch (12.8" viewable) monitor.

The 5200 series is closely related to the 6200 series, which features the same logic boards in desktop cases without integrated monitors. This means that it also shares the 6200's massive and confusing number of model designations and its unusual architecture with a 64-bit data path PowerPC CPU on a 32-bit data path logic board adapted from the Quadra 605.[1] This is the reason for various performance and stability issues, leading to the 5200 (and the 6200) series computers generally being regarded as having very compromised hardware designs.[2][3]Mac OS 8.1 and higher smooth out many of the problems with these computers.

Introduced in April 1995, the original 5200s use a 75 MHz PowerPC 603 CPU. The Power Macintosh 5200 LC was only sold to the education market, while the Performa models were sold to consumers. In April 1996, they were replaced by the 5260-related models, but some Performa models remained available for a longer time.

Introduced in July 1995, this Performa model uses a 75 MHz PowerPC 603 CPU. The Macintosh Performa 5215CD was only sold to consumers. In April 1996, they were replaced by the 5260-related models, but some Performa models remained available for a longer time.

The 5260 introduced on April 15, 1996, replaced the 6200's PowerPC 603 CPU with the newer and faster PowerPC 603e, though the rest of the architecture remained unchanged. The Power Macintosh 5400 with a new revised architecture was introduced shortly after, but the 5260 remained available at a lower price.

The 5300 introduced on August 28, 1995, replaced the 6200's PowerPC 603 CPU with the newer and faster PowerPC 603e, though the rest of the architecture remained unchanged. The Power Macintosh 5400 with a new revised architecture was introduced shortly after, but the 5300 also remained available at a lower price.

Power Macintosh 5400/120: Base education version with 16 MB RAM and an 120 MHz processor.

Power Macintosh 5400/180: Same, but with an 180 MHz processor.

Power Macintosh 5400/200: Education version with 24 MB RAM and a 200 MHz processor

Macintosh Performa 5400CD: Consumer version of the 5400/120.

Macintosh Performa 5400/160: Asia- and Europe-only version with a 160 MHz CPU.

Macintosh Performa 5400/180 (DE): Asia- and Europe-only 180 MHz variant in a black case. The "DE" (Director's Edition) was available only in Australia and had 24 MB of RAM, a built in TV tuner with remote control, and a bigger hard drive.

Macintosh Performa 5410CD: Ethernet-less version of the 5400CD.

Macintosh Performa 5420CD: The 5410CD in the 5400/180's black case.

Macintosh Performa 5430: Asia- and Europe-only variant of the 5400/160, but with 24 MB RAM.

Macintosh Performa 5440: Asia- and Europe-only variant of the 5400/180, only in a normal grey case.

The Power Macintosh 5500 – code-named "Phoenix" – was produced by Apple Inc. between February 1997 and early '98 and came with an IBMPowerPC 603ev processor operating at either 225, 250 and 275 megahertz (MHz). The processor made use of 32 kilobytes (KB)[4] of L1 cache, with an option for a 256 or 512 KB L2 cache (the latter being available only on the 275 MHz model) cache operating at the stock 50 MHz bus speed.

Apple originally produced the Power Macintosh 5500 or Performa 5500 for the educational market. It was essentially an upgraded Power Macintosh 5400. Though it dropped the name, it is functionally the successor to and last of the Macintosh LC line. The 5500's upgrades included a larger ATA hard disk. The computer came stock with a 2 gigabyte (GB)[5] hard disk, but the 275 MHz model came with a 4 GB drive; a faster SCSI CD-ROM drive (12x in early models and 24x in the top-end); a better video card in the form of an accelerated ATI Rage IIc graphics card, containing 2 megabytes (MB)[4] of dedicated VRAM and allowing for a maximum screen resolution of 1152 × 864 pixels.

5500s came with optional multimedia expansion cards, that connect via internal cables. In European models, these were an S-Video card and a Philips TV tuner card that also had an audio input. Black 5500s with this configuration were marketed as Director Editions in North America and Australasia and the 225 MHz version actually had the phrase printed on the case.

Like all other 5000 series PowerMacs, the 5500 is an All-In-One (AIO) computer – that is to say that the logic board, hard disk, floppy disk and CD-ROM drives, stereo speakers, monophonic microphone and 15" monitor are built into a single unit. This gives the computer the appearance of a television set – particularly when an aerial is connected to the built-in TV card. Like the 5400 series, the 5500 has one PCI card slot. The 225 and 250 MHz models were produced in beige and black, whilst the rarer 275 MHz models were only black.

The 5500 supports System Software versions 7.5.5 through 9.1 – Mac OS X is not officially supported on this machine. However, it can be run with XPostFacto but this is not recommended, due to the 5500's lack of a G3 processor and RAM ceiling of 128 MB. In the general case, 128 MB of RAM is the minimum required for OS X to run (a G3 iMac can run OS X with this amount of RAM), but only on machines with a G3 processor.